In custody for daylight robbery

Police in Limbe are keeping in custody Focus Kuseliwe for robbing a female banana vendor of K500 along the Limbe—Thyolo road, near the Midima magistrate’s court in the afternoon of Friday, July 29, 2011 in full view of mini bus touts, passers by and police officers.

The victim is Evelyn Adamson, 23, of Mwamadi Village T/A Machinjiri in Blantyre.

According to an eyewitness, Kuseliwe is alleged to have demanded that the woman voluntarily gives him money but the woman said she did not know thus could give her hard-earned money to a stranger.

“When the astonished woman refused to give in to the assailant’s demand, he manhandled her and grabbed the purse in which she kept her little returns,” the eye witness said, adding that it was at this juncture that the mini bus touts came in to rescue the woman and apprehended Kuseliwe.

The police who were attending to court cases at the magistrate court rushed to the scene and arrested the alleged ‘daylight’ robber and instantly charged him with robbery contrary to section 301 of the penal code before Midima senior resident magistrate Mangawa Makhalira.

The alleged robber could not take plea on the same day because he was partially intoxicated and therefore adjourned the case. When he took plea on Monday, August 1, 2011, Kuseliwe pleaded not guilty and the court set Wednesday, August 3 as date of hearing.

Kuseliwe, 28, hails from Nkhwayi village in T/A Kadewere’s area in Chiradzulu district.

Robbery attracts a maximum of 14 years imprisonment with hard labour (IHL).